I have vaccinated hundreds of 4 year olds and never had one that fainted or was hysterical (not saying it cant happen, just is very unusual) and no reason a 4 year old should have any more of a sore arm than an older person - the high school kids get theirs at school and just go back to class and carry on as usual afterwards.

Unless there is any problem when she has them, I would not keep her home.

Mine carried on their normal day following immunisations.I guess it depends on the child but if they've not reacted to previous injections then I don't think they need to stay home just in case. Only you know how your child will be OPGood luck.

I did DD's on a day with no commitments, she wasn't ill but she was quite upset and had a sore arm. I liked being able to take her to do something special afterwards, and I don't think she would've been happy if I'd dropped her straight off at child care.

Send him to daycare. My 2 younger ones recently had their 4 year old injections and had absolutely no drama, not even tears. Any symptoms will show up 5-10 days after anyway. This is what the Nurse told us at the time.

Not if the needle goes in wrong and the arm blows up like a balloon. We had a nightmare of a time with the 4yo shots. It took me + 2 doctors to hold him down to do the second arm and hysterical doesn't even begin to cover how upset he was.

My bold. Our doctor does both injections at once, either nurse and doctor, 2 doctors or 2 nurses. Over and done with in one go then, much easier on the child.

Ferdinand, I have 5 kids and I have been lucky enough to not have the reaction you have spoken about. That is scary. I believe the 5-10 days is when the live virus which is in the immunisation has well and truly gone into your system and there can be a reaction, we didn't have that either.

Wouldn't the 15 minutes after be as a precaution the the actual injection more a localised reaction? The only time I have had an upset baby was 18 years ago when dd1 was 2 or 4 months old and she had a raised temp, slept a fair bit and was out of sorts lasted less than a day if I recall.

I guess I was saying that in my recent experience (July) of having 2 x 4 year old's done (they are not genetically related to us or each other as they are in our care) we had nothing at all, no tears, no reaction no symptoms once the immunisation was in the system.

Oh, also, if symptoms of a reaction are going to take days to appear, why do they make you wait at least 15 minutes after the shots before leaving the clinic?

You are asked to wait initially in case of an anaphylactic reaction which will happen in the first few minutes.very rare but medical emergency if it does happen.

Also in case of post injection fainting, caused by anxiety let down afterwards,can occasionally happen although more so with adults.

Reactions like rash, fever, localised soreness/redness etc will happen over next 24 hours -rash from MMR and Varicella can appear a week later.

When I do the school clinics, we have 2 nurses and do each injection simultaneously, one nurse does each arm - many surgeries wont have the luxury of 2 nurses though and so 1 nurse will give one injection then the other.

I find 4 year olds are usually good - they are old enough to get what is happening and understand it hurts for a minute - but young enough to fall for flattery of How brave they are and bribery of a jellybaby afterwards

this for us. DD1 was sent to daycare in the morning, I picked her up after lunch and we got her shots done. Then we went back home for the rest of the afternoon. I'll probably do the same for DD2 in a few months time.